Live data from Hacker News

I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

on.cnn.com

81–90 of 121 posts

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#81
post #51

If I was a person with Aspergers, I would be extremely annoyed that the term 'Aspie' is used here. Why not, 'for these people,' type of wording? Coining or perpetuating a term like that only serves to isolate anyone that might otherwise have been just a person with Aspergers.

'for these people,' is just as offensive. What do you mean, "THESE people"?

The meaning and intent matters, not the phrase.

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#82

How do you know you haven't already? It's not that they walk with "ASPERGER" painted on their backs.

That's a great diagnostic. Paint ASPERGER on everyone's back. The ones who don't care to remove the mark are likely to have Asperger's (or be John Asperger).

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#83
I believe, without hard date to support, that the more HR people a company has in general, the less likely they are to hire people with Asperger's. And if those same companies do hire an employee review process that becomes very political/subjective/social is going to filter employees with asperger's out.

  If you have a job that fits their skills and don't ding them for not say golfing with the "team" I think there are opportunities to pick up highly talented people that other companies are not chasing who will stick around.

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#84
post #70

Reading this post makes me wonder if I have Asperger's...it pretty much described me to a tee. Extremely uncomfortable in crowds/parties (actually, I pretty much refuse to attend parties at all), always looking at something else when speaking to someone 1 on 1, "rambling" when describing something or telling a story when someone else would only take 1~2 sentences, speaking my mind and a tendency to avoid small talk,…

If you really are curious, you should go to a psychologist. Self-diagnosis will do no good.

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#85
post #51

If I was a person with Aspergers, I would be extremely annoyed that the term 'Aspie' is used here. Why not, 'for these people,' type of wording? Coining or perpetuating a term like that only serves to isolate anyone that might otherwise have been just a person with Aspergers.

I'm an aspie, nothin wrong with that term

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#86
post #18
post #14

Coming to a blog post, why most computer specialists relate to autism. It is very important to keep in mind there is a broad spectrum. Holding two strong relationships with a total of three children with Asperger's or high functioning autism (ages: 3-6, 7-9, 10-12) and a few here and there, it has really broadened my view on the subject. First, language is a barrier. Social awkwardness naturally follows that barrier.…

As a father with a child with autism spectrum disorder (it is not fully diagnosed until 6-8) I strongly second to have your children tested and enrolled as soon as possible (ideally as soon as you have any doubt or see any sign). Therapies can have almost magical effects if started early, much less as time passes.

Yes, if you suspect your child has any delays, programs like early start [1] are crucial in not only helping the child, but also helping you in dealing with any issues.

The only reason these programs aren't swamped with participants is because of the feared stigma and actually coming to grips with your child's differences.

[1] http://www.php.com/services/early-intervention-infants-toddl...

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#88
post #75
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another frequent side effect of Asperger's is the impulse to fix things and make sure everything runs smoothly. (I think this is not limited to Asperger's but is common to many people who are uncomfortable with emotion.) A frustrating aspect of Asperger's is that you don't feel the same emotions at the same times for the same reasons as other people. People ignore you or discount your feelings because the logic behin…

That is a very elegant way to describe one of my most non-human features. I have huge issues with saying "I'm sorry." My brain does not allow me to even consider it as an option. If I am truly sorry, I will masochistically introspect, learn, reiterate, and adjust the scenario until the feeling of saying, "I'm sorry", becomes a moot point due to my effort to correct the situation. Words are quite meaningless without a…

This is getting off-topic a bit, but I think the onus is on the person communicating to make an effort to communicate in a way the other person understands. It's up to you to learn to communicate in a shared language and not in an idiosyncratic language that only has meaning to you.

Words are quite meaningless without action.

This is incorrect, especially when it comes to thank you notes and apologies. The gesture is significant in itself, regardless of the sentiment behind it, because the gesture is conventional. When a response is expected, you can't expect silence to mean the same thing as the expected response. Often it means the opposite.

It's like you're trying to rewrite a protocol without consulting with anybody else. If you deploy a bunch of servers that speak your own proprietary dialect of HTTP, don't expect to be able to interoperate with other people's systems.

Edit/continuation:

I think 'normal' people do this too. They just have an easier time of convincing themselves of abstract concepts like love, remorse, etc.

It's true; shared experience gives an illusory reality to feelings. There are emotions (such as fear) that are biologically real in the sense that they are rooted in the structure of the brain; people would be capable of feeling these emotions without any social exposure. There are other emotions whose reality is based on shared cultural experiences, which are difficult for someone from another culture to understand. The subleties of emotions like guilt, shame, and gratitude are very difficult to understand outside a shared cultural context, because they are used to regulate relations between people. People treat them as if they were primal emotions like fear, which is very misleading. They expect that you must experience these feelings exactly the same way they do simply because you are human, but if they were transplanted into another culture they might find themselves as disoriented and "weird" as you. If you see shame, gratitude, and guilt as part of an emotional "language" like English or Spanish or Chinese, which can only arise between people, and which exist in different forms in different cultures, then it is a lot less confusing.

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#89
post #79
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a very elegant way to describe one of my most non-human features. I have huge issues with saying "I'm sorry." My brain does not allow me to even consider it as an option. If I am truly sorry, I will masochistically introspect, learn, reiterate, and adjust the scenario until the feeling of saying, "I'm sorry", becomes a moot point due to my effort to correct the situation. Words are quite meaningless without a…

> "gratitude, on any medium, is still gratitude, this is a difference of culture, but to disregard my sentiment is to deny my humanity, not just my culture." And some people prefer to be compensated in dollars, not bitcoins. Giving is about giving something that the recipient will enjoy, not about what the giver wants. Gratitude is such a gift.

If I give gratitude, then, you demand a separate kind because it does not suit your tastes seems more rude than my ignorance of what you initially wanted in exchange. The example of currency follows a completely different set of rules than gratitude of the 'thank you' nature for me. I suppose I am not one to judge what is(n't) rude.

Re: I hired someone with Asperger's – now what?

#90

Asperger's doesn't particularly exist. IIRC it is being removed from the DSM-V; 99.5% of sufferers are self-diagnosed with information that they found on the internet, and sometimes have confirmed with helpful psychiatrists. The criteria seems to be that one has a terrible personality, is simultaneously high-maintenance and inconsiderate of others, thinks very highly of one's self, but lacks any other connection with…

> The criteria seems to be that one has a terrible > personality, is simultaneously high-maintenance and > inconsiderate of others, thinks very highly of one's self

Speaking of self-diagnosis ...

Post reply on HN